Several chickens entered into the livestock competition of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Fair were stolen from their cages, shattering for many the old-fashioned sense of innocence of the event while prompting officials to consider increased security measures when the fair resumes next year.

Newborn calves and sun-splashed grounds drew a crowd of more than 30,000 people from across New England to the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Show and Fair this weekend, making the 148th annual festival a triumph.

“Considering the weather and how hot and humid it was all weekend, everything went fine,” said hall manager Kathy Lobb. “Even [Saturday] night with the threat of bad weather, nobody went into a panic.”

Just before 10 a.m. on opening day, the livestock pens, fried food booths and motionless carnival rides staked in the grounds of the 148th annual Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Show and Fair were unpeopled and peaceful in the last minutes before the gates opened to a zealous huddle of fairgoers eager to be among the first to sample the spectacles awaiting inside.

They come for the fun and festivities or they come to claim a first place prize. No matter the motivation, they come — throngs of people eager to turn the turnstiles onto the grounds of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Show and Fair.

Starting Thursday, Island residents and visitors alike will swarm the 148th Annual Agricultural Fair for four days and nights, to hear thrumming tractors and bands of banjos, stain their lips and tongues with blue and red sno-cone juice and dizzy themselves on the chutes of the sky-high carnival slide.

Summer’s Dizzying Height

For some people, in other places, the critical deadline to meet each year is April 15, which has something to do with taxes. For many people on the Island, it’s the deadline for entering the annual Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair, which has everything to do with fun. Paperwork for all fair entries is due by Monday at 5 p.m. Those otherwise sweet fair workers can be every bit as strict as the Internal Revenue Service, so don’t test them by tripping in on Tuesday.

As entries pour in for the 148th annual Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair, poster competition winner Morgan Lucero is readying her autograph hand.

Ms. Lucero’s winning entry for the highly competitive contest is of a team of strapping oxen attached to a cart in the foreground of the agricultural hall.

“I was very excited, it felt like I’d won the lottery,” said Ms. Lucero yesterday, “It’s the little things in life, you know.”

Iron skillets sailed through the air, tractors pulled their hardest, knives shucked away at oysters and saws worked their way through logs this past weekend at the 149th annual Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Fair. And although the rides have headed to the ferry, the animals have all been returned to their barns and the artwork is off the walls of the great hall, the people who participated in all these events will be back for more next year.

As a four-piece horn band serenaded the crowd to the tune of America the Beautiful yesterday morning, kids hurried over to the booth to buy ride tickets, parents applied sunscreen and food vendors began to fire up the grills. With a clear blue sky backdrop, the 149th annual Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society fair opened for fun times and long-lasting memories.

Tomorrow Vineyarders from all generations will walk into the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury, proudly carrying their artwork, home-grown vegetables, baked goods (the juniors anyway; adult bakers must wait for Thursday morning) and displays. The animals will begin to arrive in the next few days, and that heavenly smell of hay, fried food and the sweetness of August will mingle in the air on Thursday, as the 149th Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair begins.

Anna Sylvia tends to her draft horse Virgil every day at Sweetened Water barn in Edgartown. Whether after work at the SBS Grain store or after school during the winter, Anna takes at least an hour of her day to clean out Virgil’s stall, bathe and ride him. Yes, Anna rides her draft horse.